Eat For You Dietitian

33rd SPAR Budapest Marathon on Sunday 7th October 2018

Chipped Finish Time: 4.44.25

Your quirky, weird girl completed 26.2miles!!

Why did I decide to sign up for a marathon?

Quite a few months ago after going to cheer on the London Marathon and having the greatest amount of admiration for everyone completing the full 26.2miles on the hottest day in April 2018 when even me cheering was sweating. I think that was the deciding factor to begin looking for the location for my first marathon.

Main points I considered when thinking of a location was that I wanted to have a holiday in a city I’ve never been before, flat route with no hill surprises and moderately priced. After looking up quite a few, some french and other local ones when I found Budapest there was pretty much no question about it. Place registered so date was set. If anyone has come across Budapest Marathon and are having second thoughts, I would highly recommend it.

My marathon training plan?

If you follow me on instragram it’s pretty mixed with my personal life, usually my 3 pups and occasional running routes  and half marathon races, regular HIIT workouts at my gym which I swapped now for a new fitness app I’ve come to love which includes cardio, strengthening and my favourite yoga classes in the comfort of my own home.

I had all the good intentions to follow a specific training plan but as time went on I went with my own instincts and continued to follow a workout schedule suitable for my work and lifestyle. My main focus wasn’t to build up my speed during my runs but focusing on completing them. I completed the Thames Meander Half Marathon in August and Mencap 10k run in Greenwich Park in July which included beautiful scenery plus weekly local parkruns and buddy runs along the Thames path when we could.

Longest run before the marathon: 15 miles (I know I should’ve done more)

Number of runs per week: ?? didn’t put that much pressure on myself to be this strict with myself. Sometimes I did make sure I aimed between 15-20 miles a week

Favourite workout (apart from running): Yoga – be vinyasa, power or restorative. It was definitely a turning point in my marathon training to include a yoga practice about 3 times a week. Some people might think yoga is just about being flexible and stretching is incredibly important but I love yoga because it challenges your breathing, your core whether you like it or not and encourages you to practice mindfulness.

Carbohydrate loading and tapering

I am not an expert dietitians within sports nutrition and it is an area I want to increase my learning in. As I did some reading around the topic I found different methods to taper in the 3 weeks before marathon race day and most of what I read came with accurate measurements of percentages of carbohydrate intake and how you should reduce the amount of miles run per week. As my own training plan (created by me) did not go into that much detail tapering wasn’t something I focused on. One thing I can say is that I made sure I did not push myself in the weeks towards the marathon as I knew it would not benefit for the marathon and could potentially cause an injury.

Carbohydrate loading however I did take on board as ensuring you’re well nourished before a race event is incredibly important on your performance. Firstly 4 weeks prior to the marathon I stopped drinking alcohol, purely as a choice I felt was best for me.

My overall diet is mainly starchy carbohydrates, fish, meat alternatives, nuts, dried fruit, beans and pulses, fruit and vegetables, occasional cheese and chocolate/cake/biscuits probably at least every other day. As you can see a lot of carbohydrates already and a common mistake when carbohydrate loading is to think you can eat all the donuts, biscuits, cake, sweets you want. That is definitely not the case as although it tastes nice in the moment you will end up feeling sluggish, tired and bloated.

In the week and days leading up to the marathon in London and Budapest I focused on ensuring each meal had a source of carbohydrates and focused on snacks of fruit or nuts and raisins. A few days prior to the marathon I increased my carbohydrate intake by an extra couple snacks a day which included a banana with breakfast and wholegrain bread at lunchtime. I didn’t overdo it as I know the impact changing my dietary habits can have on my stomach.

Also don’t forget to stay hydrated always! I aimed for 2litres of water a day plus my usual sugar free squashes, coffees and peppermint teas in the day.

Made sure my race day kit was all prepped including number pinned on my top, isotonic and caffeine gels in my running belt and other essentials at the ready.

Marathon Day:

6:30am morning alarm

Water

Breakfast of wholegrain flakes (Budapest version of bran flakes) with almond milk and mixed nuts and raisins.

Black coffee and banana for the route to the start line

Always make sure if you’re in a different country for a race event you have managed to get a breakfast you have practised with before. I was lucky enough to find the cereal and almond milk in a local supermarket and to be on the safe side I brought my own mixed nuts and raisins.

My partner came with me to the start and my amazing friends and parents would be scattered along the course

9am marathon start time

Thoughts on approach to the start line was surprisingly not of regret but focusing on being positive on the present. I kept repeating ‘only 4 10k’s and a bit’ ‘just keep running’ ‘you got this’ (my best friend sent me the last one). Although I hadn’t followed a specific training plan I knew I could go beyond that half way and continue running.

I can’t fault Budapest Marathon organisation at all! A great first experience all round.

Well I’ve caught the bug now, 7 months till Edinburgh Marathon in May 2019.

I better do my research and book in some half marathons to achieve a chip timed sub 2 in my training. As I have quite some time to look for a training plan I will most likely be doing my own thing till the new year to build my speed to achieve a 25 minute 5k parkrun and chip timed 50 minute 10k run.

Let’s work on speed 🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏻‍♀️

Please leave me any comments or questions you have.